[Samba] Advantages to using CUPS printing on a PDC

[José Guzmán]

On 10/28/2011 12:15 AM, Michael da Silva Pereira wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'd like to know the advantages out there in the field, using CUPS to print
> from the PDC. To me it sounds like just adding another single point of
> failure in the network, perhaps I am being blinded by windows printing
> issues to see the advantage in running all the prints via a PDC box?
>
> How out there has implemented it and has it helped?
>
> Kind Regards,
> Michael da Silva Pereira
I see no advantage to use the PDC as print server, but I guess there are 
many ways to get the same results and it depends on the size/needs of 
your place.

We have a couple of BDCs in every VLAN, one of them serves as a CUPS 
print server to samba on the VLAN and every user in the VLAN has it's 
printers configured. That way, the PDC serves a single purpose (it's 
also our master DNS btw) and it's easy to back-up and restore while 
users can keep working/printing in case something happens to it, 
although in 4 years it has never failed.

Depending on the print volume and burst-rate, you may even do without a 
samba print server, for a small setup, an HP/netgear printserver may 
work. In our case, largish queue handling and print Classes (for added 
redundancy) offer a better advantage over 'hardware' printservers.

Greetings

  José